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| “ | I never fully despised the Jews until I experienced how easily they could be persuaded to do the work here. To do it so well. And to their own people! They'll be dead by week's end, every soul. And we'll replace them with others no different. Do you know how easy that will be? | „ |
| ~ Muhsfeldt displaying his sordid and hypocritical nature. |
| “ | That is how it will go for all of us. First you, then us. The last thing to do is smile. We will dispose of as many of you as we can before they do the same to us. Your bombers only speed it all up! | „ |
| ~ Muhsfeldt expressing his fatalistic desire to kill as many Jews as possible before Germany's defeat. |
Erich Muhsfeldt is the main antagonist of the 2001 historical drama The Grey Zone. Like the real-life war criminal of the same name, he is a squad leader in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp who participates in suppressing an uprising by Jewish prisoners.
He was portrayed by Harvey Keitel, who also played Sport in Taxi Driver, Lawrence Dimmick in Reservoir Dogs, The Lieutenant in Bad Lieutenant, Victor the Cleaner in Point of No Return, Winston Wolfe in Pulp Fiction, Ray Donlan in Cop Land and Vince LaRocca in Sister Act.
Biography[]
Muhsfeldt is an SS-Oberscharfuhrer at Auschwitz-II Birkenau, a Nazi extermination camp for Jewish prisoners. He is in charge of overseeing the Sonderkommando, units of specially-selected prisoners assigned to assist in the extermination of their fellow Jews. He is first seen overseeing a group of Sonderkommando manning one of the crematoria, threatening to have them all sent to the gas chamber and replaced by others if they fail to perform adequately.
Throughout the film Muhsfeldt is seen conversing with Miklos Nyiszli, a Hungarian-Jewish prisoner who has been spared extermination in return for assisting Doctor Josef Mengele in his experiments on live prisoners. Muhsfeldt has taken a morbid interest in Mengele's experiments and reminds Nyiszli, who is reluctant to continue, that his family (who are also in Auschwitz) will be executed if he doesn't cooperate fully with Mengele. Muhsfeldt has also become aware that rumours of a planned uprising are spreading amongst the prisoners and wants Nyiszli to be an informant, but Nyiszli tells him he doesn't know anything and the other prisoners don't trust him enough to tell him.
During the lead-up to the uprising, Muhsfeldt tries various means to stamp out potential insurrection, torturing and killing anyone who shows any sign of wanting to rebel. In one case, a suspected rebel is interrogated by being taken outside and shown a lineup of prisoners who are then shot one by one while her interrogators demand the names of the other rebels. However, she commits suicide by throwing herself onto the electric fence, while her partner gets herself shot by a guard's gun, depriving the Nazis of her information.
Seeing that his measures have not succeeded, Muhsfeldt tells Nyiszli that he intends to have the entre cellblock except for Nyiszli sent to the gas chambers, explaining that he knows the Nazis will soon lose the war and is intent on killing as many of the Jews under his command as possible before that day comes. During the conversation Muhsfeldt notices that one prisoner, Hesch Abramowichs, is in the area without permission and shoots him dead, provoking a scream from a young girl hiding nearby who survived the gas chamber. Muhsfeldt prepares to execute the girl, but reluctantly agrees to let her go in return for Nyiszli telling him everything he knows about the impending uprising.
The Sonderkommando finally begin their revolt and succeed in destroying one of the crematoriums and killing a number of guards, but the SS ultimately manage to suppress them. Muhsfeldt has the surviving rebels lined up and shot one by one while making Nyiszli and the girl watch. Once all the rebels are dead, Muhsfeldt tells the girl she is free to go and allows her to run away. As she runs towards the gate, Muhsfeldt takes his pistol from its holster and shoots her in the head, ordering that she be taken to the crematorium with the rest of the bodies. Before resuming work, he tells Nyiszli he has decided to let him live and he is to resume his work with Mengele, smirking as Nyiszli vomits in horror at the news.
The film ends with on-screen text revealing that Nyiszli and his family survived the Holocaust and Muhsfeldt was convicted of war crimes and hanged in 1948.